292 On the Conferee of Tasmania. 
This is certainly the most interesting and valuable tree of Tas¬ 
mania ; but it has been seen by few scientific persons. Mr. Cun¬ 
ningham’s specimens are very imperfect, consisting merely of the 
ends of branches, about four inches long, much divided in a fasci¬ 
culated manner. The ultimate divisions, which are exceedingly 
numerous, are about one quarter of an inch long and a line in 
diameter, very brittle, and covered with the leaves. The latter 
are quadrifariously imbricated, less than half a line in length, 
dark-green, and shining when dry, acutely keeled at the back, 
having a depression on each side of the keel. The spikes of fruit 
are inconspicuous, at the apices of the branchlets, either drooping 
or curved downwards, about one line long, consisting of a central 
axis or stalk, which gives off 6-8 horizontal scales or bracts; the 
latter are ovate, plane or concave on the upper surface, and very 
convex or rounded beneath; upon each is situated a shallow cup 
(the fruit-bearing scale) open towards the axis of the spike, 
formed in the old and dried specimen of two membranes, with an 
interposed hollow; the edges of this cup are obscurely crenated 
and turned rather outwards, and they surround the base of the 
seed. The majority of the seeds of Mr. Cunningham’s specimens 
are in a very bad state; the most perfect are broadly ovato-oblong, 
or somewhat elliptical, compressed from back to front, the sides 
rather acute or blunt, the apex notched, with a small tubercle in 
the notch; the outer coat was probably fleshy, but now shri¬ 
velled, and contains a loose hard nut, attached at its base and 
apex to the outer withered coat, and containing an erect seed of 
the same shape as the seed, fixed by the base, and with a black 
apex; the testa is very thin and delicate, the albumen fleshy and 
apparently copious, with a central hollow for the embryo, which 
was not seen in those very unfavourable specimens, but is pro¬ 
bably very small; the whole length of the seed is under half a 
line; most of them appear abortive, and many contain the larva 
of a small coleopterous insect, which is probably deposited before 
the closing of the foramen, and which feeds on the albumen, per¬ 
haps the embryo also, which was never found.* 
• In one respect, namely, the maturation of many seeds at the apex of each fruit-bearing 
branch, this species differs remarkably from any of its congeners, and from Pndocarvus. 
The plurality of the ovuliferous scales, and their arrangement on an axis, in all respects 
